Thursday, May 27, 2010

Early Look at Jim Keet

He is not the only potential challenger for Governor. If the Constitution Party gets ballot access, Mayor Frank Gilbert will be their candidate. You can hear him on this interview, fast forward about 10 minutes or so.

That probably deserves a whole article in itself. My feelings are very conflicted, on top of a lack of confidence that Washington can be fixed even by the best candidates. I also am not motivated because on a personal level I like them both, but on a policy level I am not convinced they "get it", or would act on what they knew if they did.

Well I haven't heard much about either of them. You are the one that I've gotten most of . my information about Gilbert. And all I know about Keet is he was a former GOP big whig. I haven't heard much of their real positions. I'm inclined to support Keet. But if Gilbert has some good positions and some good ol' "fire in his belly". I could vote for him. Besides your establishment thing, what issues differentiate Gilbert from Keet?

Keet appears to be much more of an "interventionist" than Gilbert. On education for example, Keet seems all about "fixing it" from Little Rock while Gilbert is all about returning authority to the local school boards, even if that means someone scores a couple of points lower on the Bush-Kennedy mandated school testing.

I think Gilbert is a lot stronger on spending. Keet is talking about not adding any state employees, but I believe that is in the context of contracting a lot of the state's work out to the public arm of the "private sector".

Gilbert says the state government should do less, at least in regard to things the state is now doing.

Keet's big education brag is that he got the NEA to endorse him when in the ledge. If you think that the NEA approach is the way to go, back Keet. If you think local control is the way to go, back Gilbert.

Gilbert thinks Higher Ed is too expensive and currently over-funded. He is not for getting them any more money until they find a way to deliver higher ed cheaper. I think Keet buys into the mantra that the key to economic growth is for the Arkansas taxpayer to subsidize higher ed more.

On elections, Gilbert backs Instant Runoff Voting. If you google that I think you will find it is a good reform.

On standing up to the feds, Keet has made some noise, but Gilbert goes much further. His idea is that DC has gone disfunctional and maybe hurtful. The states need to be ready to pick up the slack when the feds fail. Not only on illegal immigration, but with finance and with a state guard too.

Don't know where Keet is on pro-life, but I know Gilbert backs a human life amendment that would allow the state to challenge federal abortion rulings in court- the so-called "pro-life" amendment we have now actually hand cuffs us.